Hurricane Sandy To Sideline Obama

By CBS News, Posted by Chelsey Moran&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Sun 10:58 AM, Oct 28, 2012

After Hurricane Sandy forced changes to Mitt Romney's and Joe Biden's schedules, the White House announced late Saturday night that President Obama will forgo campaigning during the height of the storm.

On Monday, Mr. Obama will attend a previously scheduled campaign event in Orlando, Fla., with former President Bill Clinton and one in Youngstown, Ohio, but, instead of continuing on to events in the battleground states of Virginia Monday night and Colorado on Tuesday, he "will return to the White House to continue to monitor Hurricane Sandy, which is currently forecasted to make landfall along the Eastern seaboard" late Monday, the White House announced in a statement.

"The President is being regularly updated on the storm and ongoing preparations, and he has directed his team to continue to bring all available resources to bear as state and local partners continue to prepare for the storm," the statement continued.

"FEMA has already deployed teams and has pre-staged resources to potentially affected states and areas ahead of the storm, and FEMA remains in close contact with emergency responders in states up and down the East coast to ensure there are no unmet needs," the statement read. "The President will continue to receive regular briefings on these efforts, and has made clear that he expects his team to continue to lean forward as Hurricane Sandy approaches."

Saturday, Romney's campaign announced that his campaign events scheduled in Virginia for today were cancelled due to the storm's impending effect on the region and, instead, he will join his running mate, Paul Ryan, at Ryan's previously scheduled events in Ohio.

On Friday, the Obama campaign announced that Vice President Biden would not campaign Saturday in Virginia Beach as planned. Later, following the news that the University of New Hampshire would close for the storm, first lady Michelle Obama cancelled her Tuesday visit to the Durham, N.H., campus.

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